Psychological Theory and Scientific Method

Abstract

Psychology is young as a systematic study and still younger as a true science. For many reasons its growing pains have been unusually severe and its progress fitful. The four most baffling difficulties have arisen from (1) the intangible and fluid quality of its subject matter—behavior—compared with that of older sciences; (2) the unique situation created by the scientist studying his own mind; and (3) the fact that scientific writing has found it almost impossible to disentangle itself from semiscientific, popular terminology, modes of reasoning, and ``theories,'' since ``psychology'' is such an enormous daily preoccupation of all mankind; and (4) the belatedness of true functional measurement.